


Homework

by Mari_UC



Series: BirdFlash - Young Justice [5]
Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Breaking Up & Making Up, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 10:19:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16448006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mari_UC/pseuds/Mari_UC
Summary: Wally goes to Dick's to help him with his homework. And to fulfill his end-of-year resolution.





	Homework

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, here’s the next one. Set a couple weeks after the end of Winter Camp.
> 
> It’s short. It’s fluffy, and it's sort of an extension to the last story's epilogue.
> 
> Also, please read the end notes, because I have a question about the future of the series for you.

Wally ran downstairs feeling his steps a light despite being clad in two coats and a scarf, he grabbed his backpack and walked to the door ready to leave. “All right, I’m taking off. Bye,” he shouted at the kitchen where his aunt and uncle were having breakfast.

“Woah, hold your horses. What do you mean you’re taking off?” He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned to his aunt. “I’m going to Dick’s. I told you yesterday,” he answered her, walking into view of his family.

“You said you’ll go for lunch. It’s… just past 10,” she said after checking the kitchen clock “And you were supposed to finish your homework today, so you could have the holidays free,” she remembered looking at him questioningly.

_Oh, right…_

“Oh, yeah no, that’s the point. I’m getting early so I can finish it. See, I’m helping Dick’s with Chem, and he’s helping me with English Lit. Apparently, they have like the largest collection of first editions of American Literature in the whole Northeast, or something like that. Second only to the Library of Congress, I think,” he rambled remembering he hadn’t actually told his Aunt about the change in plans. “Alfred was really proud when he told me that,” Wally added after he noticed the face his Uncle was giving him at the weird trivia.

“Not having breakfast, then?” his Aunt said pointing at the pile of waffles, fruit and baked bacon on the table. Wally felt guilty for not telling her, after all the work she’d done making breakfast for him. “I… Well, I was going to raid Dick’s kitchen…” Wally managed to stop himself from finishing that sentence at the sight of his Aunt’s exasperated huff. _Right…_ He smiled sheepishly and moved to his chair having a sit in front of an empty plate “I’ll just have some waffles, then.”

“Seriously, Wally. You cannot impose on someone like that…” she said in a nagging mode as she piled a couple waffles and some sweetened plums on top of his plate. “Its fine Aunt I, they have like mountains of food, all the time, especially for the holidays. Plus, Alfred likes me,” he said soaking the food in syrup and having a first bite.

“I bet he’ll like you more, if you don’t just walk into his house and _raid his kitchen._ ” She replied, finishing with a mocking tone and Wally didn’t had to look at her to notice the severe look on her eyes, or the amusement on his Uncle’s. He grumbled and put a quarter of the waffle on his mouth, chewing loudly. It was something he did since he was a child whenever a conversation made him uncomfortable. It’s childish and it’s annoying, but he doesn’t care. Usually his Uncle gets the hint and moves the conversation to a safe topic.

“So, going to Dick’s…” his uncle tried, and Wally smiled as he swallowed. _Childish, but it does work._ _Like. A. Charm._ “Things are working out between you two?” Wally sighed thinking about that, not the change of topic he’d wished for.

Things with Dick weren’t exactly comfortable yet. Between clearing the air with the Team, getting back with his Aunt and Uncle, that awkward call to his dad, Kid Flash getting back into the streets of Central, and even all the Christmas and New Year’s Eve preparations, he’d barely had time to spend time with Dick alone.

“Sure. I mean, he’s still mad at me… of course he is. But, I don’t think he’s thinking of breaking things up definitively, so that’s a win, right?” he said shrugging as he moved the waffle around to catch all the syrup in the plate and feeling a surge of insecurity.

He’d been dreading it. That one conversation where Dick just tells him he’d been too hurt, and that they might as well stop it. He mentally swatted the idea away. He shouldn’t think like that… he’s supposed to be positive about this. “I mean, he’ll tell me if he thinks we’re over, or if he thought things were bad, right? Plus, Dick’s like that, you know? Talks openly about his feelings…” Wally finished looking at his Uncle who had a weird smile on his lips. “What?” he asked.

“Boy, you have it bad,” his Uncle said smiling softly at him, and he felt a little put out by that. “What?” he asked confused after stealing a glance at her Aunt and seeing her with a puzzling look aimed at Barry. His Uncle grin grew and he pointed at him with his fork “You don’t just _like_ Dick, do you? Boy Wonder has you quite smitten,” he stated smugly.

Wally felt his head tilt at that, and he couldn’t stop himself from asking “What?” again. _What’s that supposed to mean?_

“Wait a sec,” his Aunt was looking at his Uncle with a calculating look and asked “you _just_ got that?” she asked with an incredulous tone on her voice and Wally felt himself wanting to snicker at that. A feeling that only increased at Barry’s confused face and his Aunt’s amused sigh. “We’ve been hearing him drool and sigh and wax poetry for over two years whenever Dick’s around, and you _just_ got this might me more than a teen crush? God, Barry, seriously? Fastest man alive, my ass.”

Wally felt himself flush at the picture his aunt was painting and may have groaned a soft _Auntie_ there in the middle, but he ended up laughing at the indignant ‘ _Hey!’_ that came from his Uncle, but honestly, Wally had to side with his Aunt on this one; it’s not like he’d been shy about it; his feelings for Dick were quite open now, and they’d even talked about it after he’d came from the Camp and told them about all he’d thought about after leaving it in the first place.

Had it really taken his Uncle this long to notice he was _in love_ with Dick?

His Uncle went red and buried himself in the food while he shared a laugh with his Aunt. After a couple seconds, he calmed down and finished his food, but then his Uncle made a weird humming noise and his Aunt raised an eyebrow, “Nothing, sorry, just, suddenly a lot of comments the Bat’s been making are starting to make sense,” he said and that picked Wally’s interest. “What’s he been saying?”

“Nothing. Well, nothing you need to worry about,” he said and Wally huffed.

“You know that just makes me even more curious, right?” he said with a feeling that whatever the Bat and his Uncle were talking about had everything to do with him. He looked at the clock and decided to file that in his brain for later. “Whatever, I’m late now. Gotta run. Bye.” He said as he rushed the plates to the sink and moved to give his Aunt a kiss and his Uncle a pat on the shoulder before running out of the house.

_-_-_-_-_

_“Withdraw, then,—I consent; but remember, you leave me here in anguish.  Go up to your own room; think over all I have said, and, Jane, cast a glance on my sufferings—think of me.” He turned away; he threw himself on his face on the sofa.  “Oh, Jane! my hope—my love—my life!” broke in anguish from his lips.  Then came a deep, strong sob._

_I had already gained the door; but, reader, I walked back—walked back as determinedly as I had retreated…_

Wally scoffed shutting the book and closing his eyes, “I hate this book,” he said looking back at Dick, who had been scratching his head and scribbling on his notebook, but turned around and looked at him raising an eyebrow after his outburst.

Wally took a breath and prepared himself for a rant. “Rochester’s an asshole.” He complained looking at his boy- at Dick, and tried to organize the feeling that was setting on his mind. “I don’t care his wife is crazy. Yeah, sure, that’s some tough luck; but he was supposed to love her, he said so himself; and yet this guy deals with it by locking her up, and then getting a string of lovers who he claims to love but then treats like whores. He even compares them to slaves! His own fucking words, Dick! And now, we’re supposed to believe he’s heartbroken by Jane dumping his ass? When he lied to her, hid the fact that he was _married_ while he _tries to marry_ her, and even put her in danger by letting her live in the same house as his crazy wife! Who he _knows_ starts fires and rips other people’s clothes to shreds! Come on… I swear if this girl ends up marrying this asshole I’m burning this book.” He said glaring at the ancient tome.

“Don’t think Alfie will appreciate it,” Dick said turning to him and giving him a small grin, one Wally returned with a big smile and a rolling of his eyes. Of course, he wasn’t being literal. “Though, it looks like you hate that guy Manchester… Rochester… him, not the book;” Dick said putting his pencil on his upper lip and drawing all attention from Wally down to his mouth. To those full pink lips that were turning a little white at the place they were being pressed by the pencil. And then Dick used that pencil to press a corner of his lower lip into his mouth and trapped it with his white teeth. And Wally couldn’t think of anything else than the taste and the feeling of that lip, when he trapped it, with his own lips, and even when he bit it.

The warmth of Dick’s breath combined with the wetness of his tongue and his lips, the hard teeth that sometimes clashed against his, sending a shiver down his body that was not pleasant, but not at all unwelcome.

Wally could bet Dick’s lips taste like the chocolate and mint caramels Alfred brought them earlier, maybe he even tastes like graphite and wood from pushing the pencil into his mouth, something Wally had long ago noticed Dick did whenever he was studying a subject he didn’t understood. He usually ended up with his lips scratched and pieces of graphite in his mouth. It used to bother him too much, later, he would realize it made him become hiperaware of Dick’s lips, and his old self, guided by denial and repressed feelings, would ended up annoyed by it.

When he’d started dating it had become endearing.

Now, in the current state of affairs, it was becoming too distracting… Distracting enough not to notice Dick was talking to him.

He tuned Dick back in, in time to realize he was digressing about his rant. “You know you could use that. You have to write an essay about the book, right? A comparison of the book, the time period and today’s views, right? Well, use that. Talk about Rochester, his position. You know, it does sound interesting, the thing about him being married, locking up his wife and seeking a new one. It doesn’t sound too ‘ _in_ _sickness and in health’_ to me, so maybe something about changes in today’s marriage expectations.”

“Huh. Maybe… Have you read this?” he asked trying to remember what he’d been talking about and focusing on giving him a proper answer.

“No, but I had to write an essay about Macbeth, and I hated his wife, so I focused my essay on her. I finished in Upper Second… I mean, I got an A- in that semester,” he amended, probably noticing Wally’s confused face. “Upper Second…” he repeated back still trying to wrap his head about the whole _Brit College Grading_ stuff. “Your school is weird, man,” Wally said giving up on trying to understand that snobbish private school.

 _Oh, sorry,_ ‘ _Academy’_.

But still, now that he went back on it, Dick’s idea was interesting, he did felt strongly enough about the asshole that he could probably write something good about it.

He looked at Dick and smiled at him, and felt a tickle on his chest at Dick’s smile and playful wink before he focused back on his work. Wally was supposed to go back to reading, but the feeling on his chest just kept simmering under his skin as he looked at the nape of Dick’s neck, his short black hair, the small strands that went back to the collar of his hoodie, and the small patch of skin barely visible from this angle. So, Wally decided to forget the book and go back on his earlier divagations.

The tingling moved to his lips as he remembered the feeling of his lips on that particular square of Dick’s skin. Dick hated when Wally kissed him there, but he fidgeted and shivered so deliciously, that every time Wally hugged him from behind he wasn’t able to control himself and ended up kissing him and smelling Dick’s scent mixed with that minty shampoo he used.

After his lips, the nape of his neck was the best place to kiss Dick.

Wally squirmed in the bed trying to remove those thoughts from him. If he kept acting like this he would end up walking up there and kissing Dick, and that wouldn’t end well for him. They were still in a weird place. Wally felt again like he had all those months ago, in those few weeks between the moment they had come out and the moment he had kissed Dick for the first time, in this same room. With one particular difference, though; now, he knew what it felt like to kiss Dick, he knew how it felt to have his bird on his arms. He knew the _fullness_ of just spending time with Dick, knowing they were _together._ Now he could _miss_ all of that. And it made it _worst_. It made it hell.

But, Wally could see how Dick was starting to feel more at ease with him. He could see how Dick was opening to him. It kept him in high spirits, each time he caught Dick looking at him or when he would get close to him, like two nights ago, when they stayed after a Mission and ended up sharing a couch while they watched a movie. Dick had dozed off and had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Wally hadn’t been able to watch the movie after that, his ears were ringing and his arm felt on fire where Dick was touching him.

Despite how little they’d seen of each other, Wally thought they were making great progress, slow… way too slow; but Wally wasn’t about to complain about it. Advance was advance. Even if it felt slow… Even if he wanted nothing more than hugging and kissing Dick every second they were together.

Wally sighed.

He needed to stop this. He needed to focus on something else, like his book. Or the preparations for New Year’s Eve. The Team had talked about it, they’d agreed to spend Christmas with their families, and the Eve at Mt. Justice. The whole Team had agreed to meet, and try to make it, sort of a thing, spending New Year together. Last year they’d spent the Eve chasing mentally controlled Leaguers, this year they were hoping to get a more relaxed private party, kind of a weekend sleepover. All of them. No mentors, no family, no missions.

Wally was counting of having his boyfriend back with him for that date, or at least use the holiday to get back together with him. It was kind of an _end-of-year_ resolution. Getting his bird back. Then he could make his New Year’s resolution to get into the scholarship program, and his life will be perfectly on track.

He would pursue his dream career and he would have his bird by his side. Perfection.

“I think I got it this time.” Dick’s voice brought him back to the present, and he was looking up to him holding his notebook with a triumphant smile on his face. Wally smiled back and walked up to him, taking it and scanning the contents of his answer. The chemistry problems revolve around gas phase equilibrium. Dick had been struggling with it and Wally had been trying to help him, without giving him the answer.

Dick probably felt really proud about finally finishing the fifteen-problem homework.

Except…

“Uhm-” Wally looked up to Dick and saw the exact moment the Boy Wonder realized he had something wrong. His eyes dropped and the smile froze in place. “Sorry?” Wally said softly and Dick groaned at him.

“What?” he groaned scratching his head “No, impossible. I checked like five times, it adds up.” Dick snatched the notebook from him and looked over the answers, frustration clear on his face.

“No, it doesn’t.” Wally said, trying to show support through his voice, he knew from personal experience how frustrating not getting a question could be, especially when you believe it to be right. “Question 12 is wrong,” he said, and he saw Dick’s eyes focus on the problem.

“Why?” he cried at him. “Come on, Walls, I… It doesn’t make sense, I checked every fucking number, it adds up”

“Mathematically, maybe. But chemically it makes no sense,” he said looking at Dick loose his cool over the problem. He smiled a little at him, the technique was well applied, and Dick was right, the mathematic technically worked, except, you know, for the fact that he was getting an impossible compound as a result.

Wally didn’t even need to check Dick’s math work to know the answer was wrong; there was only one reason the teacher would have presented a problem with Neon acting as an added gas in an equilibrium problem…

“I’ll give you a hint. That’s a trick question…”

“What?” Dick looked up to see him and then went back to the page looking at the question. “Where’s the trick?” he asked reading the problem again, and Wally wanted to smile, but manage to keep it of his face, knowing that if Dick saw him smiling… “I swear to God, Wally, if you’re pulling my leg…”

Wally raised his hands before placing one on Dick’s shoulder, “I’m not…” he said trying to calm him down. Dick looked at him, probably trying to assess if he was being pranked, but Wally just held his gaze and he eventually went back to read over the problem.

And Wally went over Dick’s answer in his head again.

 _Fe2Ne_ wasn’t a possible compound.

It couldn’t be. Chemically, it didn’t made sense.

Not only Neon compounds were nearly non-existent, those that did, exist only in a weak bond like Van der Waals molecule, and they only existed in very specific circumstances, like the ones you’ll get to see in an _extremely_ advanced AP Chem, like the one he was studying online at Stanford.

So, regardless of the compounds present in the question, Neon was acting as an inert gas. Dick shouldn’t have tried to introduce the gas as a reactive, but simply as an inert element meant to add pressure to the existing formula. That’s all. Quite easy, really.

“I give up,” Dick said throwing his pencil to the table and groaning against the chair.

“No, come on… you’re so close,” Wally said picking the pencil and handing it over to Dick.

“No I don’t. I hate chemistry,” he said ignoring the pencil. Wally gasped loudly acting hurt. “ _Richard Grayson…_ I’ll let this one slip because you actually got the other questions right, and I know you’re frustrated, but if you insult _Chemistry_ one more time…”

Dick, however didn’t fell for it simply muttering “Whatever, chem nerd.” Never one to let someone else have the last word, Wally raised an eyebrow and bit back at him with a short “Circus freak.”

However, they both knew the insults didn’t had any heat and ended up smiling at each other for a couple seconds, before Dick sighed and took the pencil back from Wally and looked at the book. Wally mulled over the question, trying to think of an easy hint to get Dick back on track.

Telling him to look at the Neon would just hand him the answer. There was also the ‘at a constant level’ sentence that gave away the problem, but he’ll need to know the principles to heart to understand why that was relevant. And a hint over the impossibility of neon-ferric compounds would just be too much.

_So…_

“Just look closely at the elements you’re given…” he said to Dick. “Read the problem again and look at the elements. Look at them in the Table,” he handed Dick the periodic table and saw him skimming over it to look at the elements. “Notice anything?” he asked after a couple seconds.

“No,” Dick grunted stressed. “Don’t get frustrated, D… Just look at where they are…” he tried again, and Dick sent him a dirty glare before rolling his eyes and going over the table again, pointing each element. “O… Fe… Ne… Wait, Neon?” Wally smiled as he saw the second Dick made the connection. _Noble gas. Highly stable. Unlikely to form a covalent bond… which meant…_ “Oh! Seriously? That’s it?” he muttered as he wrote the correct compounds and adjusted K.

Wally looked over the numbers as he was writing them and checked the calculations in his mind. Once Dick finished writing them Wally grinned at him “Yep,” he said “ _now_ you got it. Told you it was a trick question.”

Wally put his hand on Dick’s shoulder and the boy tilted his head to rest his cheek on Wally’s hand, sending a pleasant warmth through his arm, before he could realize he was doing it, Wally raised his fingers to caress the cheek and Dick closed his eyes and hummed at the contact tilting his head and looking straight at him and still smiling softly at him, and the tingling on his lips came full force once again.

Wally risked a move forward to reduce the distance and Dick turned towards him, facing him and not breaking eye contact. Wally felt his breath catch as he lowered himself to the chair level and softly brushed his lips against Dick’s, tentatively. Dick hummed against his touch and Wally moved the hand that was still caressing the cheek, into the back of Dick’s neck and held him into place as he pressed a bit more firmly his lips against Dick’s enjoying the warmth and the softness of those pink lips.

Dick pulled back a bit and Wally stood there frozen, not risking to open his eyes or to move his body an inch for what felt like an eternity, but soon enough Dick’s lips were crashing against his again and Wally sank himself in the warmth and the taste, and the delicious sounds that were coming from Dick’s throat.

He opened his lips and caught Dick’s lower one sucking softly and scrapped it a bit with his teeth before using his tongue to caress it. He wanted to bite into those lips, to suck them, and bite them, and lick them, and do it over and over and over again until he couldn’t do anything more than overdose on the amazing taste of Dick coupled with the graphite and a hint those peppermint candy canes Alfred had brought for them.

“Wally,” Dick’s voice caused Wally to hum and he tried to go for the upper lip this time and- “Walls, please stop.” The words worked their way into Wally’s hazed mind and he felt the electricity ran through him as he flashed himself half a feet away from Dick’s lips, the reality of the kiss just catching up to him. “Sorry. Sorry, Dick, I didn’t meant…”

_Shit… Shit, I wasn’t supposed to…_

_But Dick wanted to… didn’t he… I mean, he reciprocated. He definitively reciprocated. And he moaned. I mean, he wouldn’t have moaned if it was bad, wouldn’t he… He wouldn’t_

_He definitively wouldn’t._ “‘s ok” Dick said cutting Wally’s internal freak out “I… I don’t mind… Just… slow down a bit.” Dick said with a smile and Wally smiled back at him nodding and taking a step back. “Maybe… we should just stay at one kiss.”

Wally smiled at him “One per…” he asked wiggling his eyebrows and causing Dick to smile and slap him on the hip… And Wally couldn’t stop from thinking that a couple inches to the side, and it would have been an ass slap... Not that he’ll mind that…

_At all…_

“One for today...” Dick said turning back into the homework, before adding softly. “After that… we’ll have to see, won’t we?” Wally hummed and dropped himself on the bed still riding on the warmth of the kiss. The first one since the one he’d stolen after coming from the camp.

_I can totally do it, one kiss a day until Dick’s ready for more…_

_That’s enough…_

And if Wally raised his hand like a school girl to touch his lips to savor Dick’s taste… Well, he’s sure Dick noticed but he didn’t brought it up.

And if he noticed that Dick had stopped pressing the pencil against his lips, choosing instead to move it from side to side, softly caressing then… well, he didn’t mentioned it either.

_Oh, yeah._

_I’m definitively getting him before New Year’s Eve._

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, 
> 
> I started this series with a clear idea of what I wanted to tell. There were three or four stories focused on Wally as the main character, and three or four focused on Dick as the main character. Wally’s stories have been focused on the beginning of a relationship, while Dick’s stories will focus on a more stable relationship. Dick’s side takes place after a little time jump, moving closer to Season Two of Young Justice. 
> 
> I’m making that time jump soon. But, the thing is, I have started to write and imagine a lot of side stories around the series, but they kind of mess with the timeline; so I have two options:
> 
> Option One, I keep publishing the stories (including the side ones) as I write them and disregard chronology (and we keep jumping back and forward in time).
> 
> Option Two, I make the time jump and continue with the core stories, but I post a single work where I’ll keep updating those side stories as I write them. 
> 
> (BTW, the side stories would be things like Dick and Wally’s first date, Dick’s Birthday fiasco, Iris and Barry’s reactions during Winter Camp, Dick finding about Roy kissing Wally and other things I might not have thought about yet).
> 
> I guess, there could also be an option three, where I don’t post the side stories and stick to the main series.
> 
> So, my question to you is… What would you like me to do? Post as I write, regardless of the jumps in the timeline; or Keep to the timeline and have a place to put all the side stories (…or option three, just stick to the main series).
> 
> I still haven’t decided what to do… so, I’ll appreciate your comments on the matter.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked this story.


End file.
